(a) Within 90 days of completion of the review of all emissions inventory data for facilities specified in subdivision (a) of Section 44322, but not later than December 1, 1990, the district shall, based on examination of the emissions inventory data and in consultation with the state board and the State Department of Health Services, prioritize and then categorize those facilities for the purposes of health risk assessment. The district shall designate high, intermediate, and low priority categories and shall include each facility within the appropriate category based on its individual priority. In establishing priorities pursuant to this section, the district shall consider the potency, toxicity, quantity, and volume of hazardous materials released from the facility, the proximity of the facility to potential receptors, including, but not limited to, hospitals, schools, day care centers, worksites, and residences, and any other factors that the district finds and determines may indicate that the facility may pose a significant risk to receptors. The district shall hold a public hearing prior to the final establishment of priorities and categories pursuant to this section.
(b) (1) Within 150 days of the designation of priorities and categories pursuant to subdivision (a), the operator of every facility that has been included within the highest priority category shall prepare and submit to the district a health risk assessment pursuant to Section 44361. The district may, at its discretion, grant a 30-day extension for submittal of the health risk assessment.
(2) Health risk assessments required by this chapter shall be prepared in accordance with guidelines established by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. The office shall prepare draft guidelines which shall be circulated to the public and the regulated community and shall adopt risk assessment guidelines after consulting with the state board and the Risk Assessment Committee of the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association and after conducting at least two public workshops, one in the northern and one in the southern part of the state. The adoption of the guidelines is not subject to Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code. The scientific review panel established pursuant to Section 39670 shall evaluate the guidelines adopted under this paragraph and shall recommend changes and additional criteria to reflect new scientific data or empirical studies.
(3) The guidelines established pursuant to paragraph (2) shall impose only those requirements on facilities subject to this subdivision that are necessary to ensure that a required risk assessment is accurate and complete and shall specify the type of site-specific factors that districts may take into account in determining when a single health risk assessment may be allowed under subdivision (d). The guidelines shall, in addition, allow the operator of a facility, at the operator’s option, and to the extent that valid and reliable data are available, to include for consideration by the district in the health risk assessment any or all of the following supplemental information:
(A) Information concerning the scientific basis for selecting risk parameter values that are different than those required by the guidelines and the likelihood distributions that result when alternative values are used.
(B) Data from dispersion models, microenvironment characteristics, and population distributions that may be used to estimate maximum actual exposure.
(C) Risk expressions that show the likelihood that any given risk estimate is the correct risk value.
(D) A description of the incremental reductions in risk that occur when exposure is reduced.
(4) To ensure consistency in the use of the supplemental information authorized by subparagraphs (A), (B), (C), and (D) of paragraph (3), the guidelines established pursuant to paragraph (2) shall include guidance for use by the districts in considering the supplemental information when it is included in the health risk assessment.
(c) Upon submission of emissions inventory data for facilities specified in subdivisions (b) and (c) of Section 44322, the district shall designate facilities for inclusion within the highest priority category, as appropriate, and any facility so designated shall be subject to subdivision (b). In addition, the district may require the operator of any facility to prepare and submit health risk assessments, in accordance with the priorities developed pursuant to subdivision (a).
(d) The district shall, except where site specific factors may affect the results, allow the use of a single health risk assessment for two or more substantially identical facilities operated by the same person.
(e) Nothing contained in this section, Section 44380.5, or Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 44390) shall be interpreted as requiring a facility operator to prepare a new or revised health risk assessment using the guidelines established pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of this section if the facility operator is required by the district to begin the preparation of a health risk assessment before those guidelines are established.
(Amended by Stats. 1992, Ch. 1162, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 1993.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018